Did you know

Reporters Without Borders said in it’s 2005 special report titled “Xinhua: the world’s biggest propaganda agency”, that “Xinhua remains the voice of the sole party”, “particularly during the SARS epidemic, Xinhua has for last few months been putting out news reports embarrassing to the government, but they are designed to fool the international community, since they are not published in Chinese.”

Archive for the ‘Heilongjiang’ Category

As a prisoner at the Jixi labour camp, Liu Dali would slog through tough days breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines of north-east China. By night, he would slay demons, battle goblins and cast spells.

Liu says he was one of scores of prisoners forced to play online games to build up credits that prison guards would then trade for real money. The 54-year-old, a former prison guard who was jailed for three years in 2004 for “illegally petitioning” the central government about corruption in his hometown, reckons the operation was even more lucrative than the physical labour that prisoners were also forced to do.

“Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour,” Liu told the Guardian. “There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn’t see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.” Read the rest of this entry »

New York— Since news emerged last month of three Falun Gong detainees being killed in custody at a prison in northeast China, family members of the victims and others prisoners of conscience have been harassed and beaten, as the authorities seek to cover up the deaths.

Torture and abuse intensified at Jiamusi Prison in Heilongjiang province in February after personnel received orders in early 2011 to increase the “transformation rate” among Falun Gong practitioners held at the camp. The orders were issued as part of a nationwide three-year Communist Party campaign to reinvigorate transformation efforts (CECC analysis). Read the rest of this entry »

BEIJING — Four people died and two others were injured in an attack at an old people’s home in northeastern China on Friday which left the building on fire, a city official said.

The attack took place in the city of Yichun in Heilongjiang province, a city district official said.

Police detained a 50-year-old resident of the home, Zhou Zhiyi, in connection with the incident, Xinhua state news agency reported, quoting a statement from the provincial emergency response office.

Zhou told the authorities that other residents at the home — which housed 21 people — had treated him badly and not repaid him money they owed him, Xinhua said, citing the statement.

The incident was the latest in a series of recent killing sprees in China that some experts have linked to stress or mental illnesses as society becomes more fast-paced and socialist support systems wither.

Several people have attacked children and teachers at schools in particularly gruesome crimes that have shocked the nation.

At least six major attacks at schools have taken place since March, killing 21 people — including 18 children — and injuring more than 80.

In August, a Chinese court sentenced to death a man who murdered his girlfriend and four other people in a drunken fit of rage on New Year’s Eve last year, state media reported.

BEIJING — A Chinese airliner crashed and burst into flames while attempting to land in northeast China, killing 42 people on board, state media reported on Wednesday.

The Henan Airlines plane broke into two pieces late Tuesday before it smashed into the ground while trying to touch down at an airport in the city of Yichun in remote Heilongjiang province, the official Xinhua news agency said.

There were 91 passengers, including five children, and five crew on board, Xinhua said, citing a source at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

More than 40 bodies had been found, Xinhua said, and the rest on board had been rushed to hospital.

Some passengers were thrown out of the cabin before the turbine jet hit the ground.

The crash occurred shortly after 9:30 pm (1330 GMT) near Yichun’s Lindu airport, around 40 minutes after the plane took off from Harbin, the provincial capital.

Rescue crews at the crash site were seen putting victims’ remains in body bags, Xinhua reported, while the charred wreckage of the plane, which came to rest two kilometres (a mile) from the runway, remained cordoned off.

Anxious relatives waited on open ground near the airport, Xinhua said, but dense fog was hampering the rescue effort.

Case 3

Mr. Wu Yueqing was a Falun Gong adherent from the city of Shuangyashan, Heilongjiang province.

He was abducted numerous times because of his cultivation in Falun Gong. In January 2002 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and was detained at the 23rd unit, 11th ward at the Mudanjiang prison in Heilongjiang province.

He was tortured during detention, resulting in muscular dystrophy, and deteriorating of multiple organs.

He was persecuted to death on December 23 2007. At that time, his sister Wu Yuexia was also imprisoned at the labor camp because she practiced Falun Gong.

Their 13 years old son was orphaned without anyone’s care after Wu’s wife died later, he was sent to the Jiamusi Orphanage. The video was recorded before Wu’s death.

Case 2

Mr. Wang Xinchun was a Falun Gong practitioner from Yichun city, Heilongjiang province. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. After he started cultivating Falun Gong in 1998 his health was completely recovered.

He was sent to labor camp after he went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. In early 2002, while Wang Xinchun was distributing Falun Gong truth clarification flyers, the police spotted him and chased after him. He ran into a remote mountain area in minus 30 degrees Celsius weather and his two feet suffered frostbite. The police later captured him.

Wang Wei, the police station chief and others forced Mr. Wang to put his injured feet into hot water (which is the wrong thing to do and will aggravate frostbite and cause severe injury). As a result he lost both feet.

After Wang Xinchun became handicapped, the police continued persecution by harassing and beating him, as well as cutting off his financial support.

Family members of 56 Falun Gong practitioners in a jail in Heilongjiang Province, China, have published their complaint to the Chinese authorities online, demanding legal compensation and for perpetrators to be held responsible for alleged crimes.

On August 11 Minghui.net, a Falun Gong Web site, published the families’ complaint to the Chinese court system. The complainants are all direct family members of 56 Falun Gong practitioners detained in the Daqing Labor Camp in the northern province of Heilongjiang.

The letter takes a similar form to a previous one, lodged in 2006, after 1,061 family members of Falun Gong practitioners detained in Zhumalong Labor Camp, Hunan Province, wrote to international human rights organizations.

This time, in addition to having their complaints published on the Internet, the family members sent their complaint to the United Nations, several human rights groups concerned with the persecution of Falun Gong, and a number of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organs, including the National People’s Congress and the Ministry of Justice.

The indictment states, in part: “Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted by the CCP physically and spiritually. They have even lost their lives. At the same time, we family members and friends are all affected by this persecution. This is a destruction of human conscience and morality. We do not understand this persecution and we cannot endure it anymore.”

They go on to lay out the alleged torture experienced by 16 of their relatives who practice Falun Gong, and detail the alleged crimes committed in Daqing Prison, which are opposed to the basic rights offered in the Chinese constitution and Chinese criminal law, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they argue.

One of the examples the families give is that of Zhu Hongbing, an employee of the 7th Gas Lift Factory of the Daqing Petroleum Administration Bureau. He was imprisoned for seven years, they say, where he was brutally tortured by police and prison guards. In September 2002, Zhu was beaten to the point where he had to be hospitalized, with one of his lungs ulcerated; a tube was then connected to drain the pus from his lung, and he fell into a coma for 24 days.

Later, In May 2005, police did not allow him to eat, sleep or use the restroom; and then, by way of force-feeding, poured diluted milk into his lungs, which caused serious ulcerations and eventually heart-failure.

Force-feeding is the leading cause of death of Falun Gong practitioners in custody, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center. Because guards are untrained and apparently do not care for the health of those in their custody, feeding tubes are often wrongly inserted into the lung rather than stomach.

When Zhu was released in 2008, after serving his term in prison, his lung capacity was severely reduced, and he passed away soon after, according to family members……. (more details fromThe Epochtimes)

HONG KONG— Authorities in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang said Tuesday they were investigating violent clashes between police and villagers protesting against land acquisition by the government, which left around 18 people injured.

“They tried forcefully to proceed with the construction, but we tried to stop them, as no compensation was ever paid,” a villager from Yushu township near Heilongjiang’s Fujin city said.

The villager, identified by his surname Meng, said 50 to 60 road construction workers came by truck last Thursday after villagers had occupied the disputed plot of land since the end of May.

“They beat us with shovels and other tools,” Meng said. “Eighteen villagers got injuries on their heads, legs, and arms.”

“Three or four injured villagers are still in hospital,” he added.

The grandfather of 24-year-old Yu Bin said the young man had sustained brain damage and was in critical condition.

“My grandson had internal bleeding in his brain,” Yu’s grandfather said. “His kidney was also damaged. He is in critical condition in a local hospital.”

He said authorities wanted to acquire farmland from Yushu residents to build a road. “They said they would compensate us villagers with farmland that is more than 50 kms away, so no one would take it,” Yu said.

“As for monetary compensation, they could only give 5,200 yuan (about U.S. $760) per hectare. Many villagers came out to protect their land regardless of age and gender,” Yu’s grandfather said.

Police probe

Local police confirmed some villagers were injured. An officer who answered the phone at the Yushu township police station said: “We are still investigating the case, and so we are not obliged to say if any suspects have been arrested.”…… (more details fromRadio Free Asia)

CHINA – Since the end of the Olympic Games, ChinaAid has received reports of intensified religious persecution from across China.

– In Beijing, Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan and his family members have been evicted from their home, beaten and arrested.

– In Heilongjiang province, one city called Yichuan recently banned all of the house churches.

– In Yunnan province, some house church members were attacked right after the Olympics.

– In Shandong province, Pastor Zhang Zhongxin was sentenced to two years of re-education through labor, and after the Olympics his appeal was denied. Pastor Zhang’s lawyer, Li Fangping, was refused permission to meet with him because authorities claim Pastor Zhang could endanger state security.

In another shocking new discovery, ChinaAid learned 29 house church leaders have been serving time in a labor camp and prisons in Henan province since July 9, 2007. They are accused of being “evil cult” members.

Among the 29 house church leaders, 21 are being held in No. 3 Prison of Henan province. One leader was released in September 2008. The other seven house church members belong to a house church group in Lingbao city that is part of the “Born Again Movement”. They were sentenced by the court as “evil cult” members on July 9, 2007. One leader was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, which is the harshest sentence against a house church leader in recent years besides Pastor Zhang Rongliang who was sentenced to seven and a half years in 2004 for allegedly “attempting to illegally cross the border and forgery of an official document”.

On May 13, 1992 Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhi introduced the practice of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, to the general public in mainland China. According to official statistics, in a few short years it grew dramatically in popularity until there were at least 70 million Chinese practitioners.

In the wake of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong (video: Why is Falun Gong persecuted in China), which started on July 20, 1999, the scenes of Falun Gong group practice in mainland China have become events worth recalling. Let us take a look at these historic photographs of Falun Gong group practice in China in celebration of this year’s World Falun Dafa Day.

Northeast China’s largest grain depot, the “No. 90 Grain Storehouse,” was recently robbed of its entire stock. Investigation has revealed the loss so far to be an estimated 900 million yuan (approximately 128 million US$.) At least six related arrests have been made. In light of the current global grain shortage, the case is of serious import to the communist regime leaders.

The grain storehouse, located in Fujin, Jiamusi City, mainly stores rice, soybeans, and corn. It also has its own grain transportation railway. A local worker, who did not want to be named, informed Epoch Times that a population of over 10,000 live near the storehouse, which includes several work units, a state-owned farm warehouse, a railway terminal station, and a large oil plant.

On April 30, a local resident disclosed to the Epoch Times that the case was exposed when superiors in authority issued grain transfer requests, and subsequently discovered that the storehouse was empty. It was rumored that many internal staff members had participated in the theft and selling of the stock supply. All local residents are aware that the regime’s Central Discipline Committee has been following up on the case.

A local resident told Epoch Times, “The investigative team of the Central Discipline Committee arrived about one week ago. Currently, they have unveiled that stock valued at 900 million yuan have been lost. Three officials, including the director, were arrested last week. Currently, about six or seven people have been arrested, with the investigation is still going on.”

According to an inside source, employees of the storehouse, from the director on down to gate security staff, have all participated in the large-scale theft. Local residents frequently witnessed the transference of grains by rail and other means of transportation. Some have even observed instances of culprits making off with a pack of grain on their shoulder. The source also stated that the stock is normally sold to people from other provinces.

An Epoch Times reporter has repeatedly tried to contact storehouse employees, or make direct calls to different departments of the storehouse. Most of the time, no one picks up the phone, or if they do answer, they quickly hang up.

On April 29, a storehouse employee’s wife told the Epoch Times that her husband’s cell phone had been turned off by his work unit, and he has not been back to home for several days. On April 30, the reporter made repeated phone calls to the wife, but no one would answer.

The reporter also attempted to contact the storehouse’s superior authorities, the Grain Bureaus of Heilongjiang Province and Fujin City. Those who answered the phone hung up immediately after the storehouse situation was brought up.

Olympic human rights activist Yang Chunlin was sentenced to five years imprisonment Tuesday for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ by championing his cause with the slogan, “We don’t want the Olympics, we want human rights.”

(photo: At the trial, Yang was shrouded in black and surrounded by court police. /The Epoch Times)

While being taken from the courtroom, police shocked him with electric batons in front of his family. The 20-minute trial took place in the Jiamusi City Intermediate People’s Court in Heilongjiang Province.

Rejecting that the Chinese authorities’ judicial system is legitimate, Yang refused to sign the court document and insists he will not appeal his sentence.

Yang, a 53-year-old unemployed factory worker, is also is a freelance writer under the pen-name, “Wei Houren.” At the end of 2006, Yang advocated for farmers who lost their farmlands in Fujin City, Heilongjiang. He collected over 10,000 signatures on an open petition letter titled, “We want human rights, not the Olympics.” On July 6, Yang was arrested by the National Security Bureau in Jiamusi. On August 13, he was charged with ‘inciting subversion of state power.’

Yang’s attorney Li Fangping stated that his client received a sentence that was unduly harsh. He said Yang will now have ten days to decide whether to appeal.

Yang’s sister, Yang Chunping, explained that the court hearing, beginning at 3pm on the afternoon of March 24, lasted about 20 minutes in total.

“The court sentenced him to five years imprisonment and two years deprivation of political rights, on charges of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ because he posted articles online attacking the ruling regime,” said Chunping.

“When asked for his opinion of the verdict, [my brother] declared that the Chinese judicial system isn’t legal at all. So what kind of opinion could he have over the sentence? Because his behavior is in complete compliance with the country’s freedom of speech laws, his sentencing was not legal. Therefore, he refused to sign on the written judgment. He also expressed that he would not appeal, a decision he had already determined.”

Police Beat Yang with Electric Batons on Site

After the hearing, Chunping said her brother was quickly taken away from court. His family members wished to say a few words to him, urging him to reconsider an appeal. But court police prevented any contact with his family by shocking Yang with electric batons.

“Our family members only wanted to tell my brother to appeal, but the police didn’t allow him to speak. They used electric batons to shock him several times,” said Chunping. “My brother was hurt so terribly that he covered his abdomen with his hands. Upon witnessing this tragic scene, my family members all cried loudly in protest and officers quickly threw my brother into a police vehicle.”

“Although my brother didn’t sign the sentence in writing after the hearing, the court forced my sister to sign a copy for relatives. We don’t know whether this will have any legal effect.”

With no signature Yang’s sentence was still valid, said Attorney Li Fangping, as the court had an open hearing.

If Yang did choose to appeal, Li said he would still continue to represent him. But said the case is possibly over, as Yang had openly expressed that he would not appeal.

A 26-year-old North Korean woman, Mun Yun-hee crossed the Duman or Tumen River into China in the dawn of Oct. 22 last year, which at that point was some 40 m wide, guided by a human trafficker. She was being sold to a single middle-aged Chinese farmer into a kind of indentured servitude-cum-companionship. Both of them wore only panties, having stored their trousers and shoes in bags, because if you are found wearing wet clothes across the river deep at night, it is a dead giveaway that you are a North Korean refugee.

Mun was led to a hideout, and the agent left. Asked why she crossed the river, she replied, “My father starved to death late in the 1990s, and my mother is blind from hunger.” Her family owed 300 kg of corns, beans and rice and sold herself for the sake of her blind mother and a younger brother. The middleman paid her 350 yuan, or W46,000 (US$1=W939), equivalent to half of the grain debt.

A Chosun Ilbo news team became the first in the world to see the scale of human trafficking in the China-North Korea border. The exodus in the famines of the latter half of the 1990s has degraded into blatant human trafficking. In the 10 months since May, 2007, the team witnessed the lives of North Korean refugees in five countries: China, Russia, Japan, the U.S. and Britain. In China, the refugees live day and night in fear of deportation to the North and poverty.

“I was first sold to a 34-year-old Chinese man in Shandong Province. Six months later, public security officers arrested me one day at midnight. Asked how, they said on a notification by a neighbor,” Mun said.

She was immediately sent to Dandong prison, from where a group of North Korean detainees were deported to Shinuiju chained two and two. There, she was thrown into a North Korean State Safety and Security Agency camp for a month. “They took a quantity of blood to check possible venereal disease. Undressing the women, they checked even inside the sexual organs with gloved hands,” Mun recalled.

If you repeat sit-and-stand 20 times, you vomit up everything you have eaten. Male inmates are forced to strike their heads against the steel door and beaten with clubs when they resist. Pregnant inmates were forced to miscarry on the grounds they were bearing Chinese children. “The meals of corns with one side dish served were so poor that we longed for the meals we were given by the Chinese prison.” Transferred to an escapees camp in Chongjin, North Hamgyeong Province, she was released after a stint of hard labor in 17-hour shifts.

Several months later, now 25, she again entrusted her body to a trafficker.

An officer from the Durihana Mission, an organization assisting North Korean refugees, asked her, “We won’t sell you to a Chinese. Will you go to South Korea?” Without hesitation, she replied, “I’ll go back to the Chinese man who bought me first. I want to live with him, eating plenty and earning money, and send money to my family at home.” For the benefit of her blind old mother and younger brother, she opted to stay in China, risking another deportation. The Durihana Mission officer, failing to persuade her into going to the South, bid her farewell after buying her a few pieces of winter clothes.

The title given to North Korean refugees until the early 1990s was “hero defector.” Symbolized by Lee Woong-pyung, a North Korean air force officer who flew a MIG fighter jet to South Korea in 1983 and died of cancer in 2002, hero defectors offered the South Korean government meaningful information and were used as a propaganda tool for the superiority of our system. Then, in the latter half of the 1990s, famines hit the North. The food shortages, described by the North Korean regime as “the Hardship March”, claimed an estimated 3 million lives. The exodus to China followed. North Koreans crossed the border to escape from hunger braving strict patrols by the Chinese border police. The food shortage has moderated in the past decade, but the flow of North Korean refugees never ended. North Koreans who have come to the South now number more than 10,000, and an estimated 40,000 North Koreans live in third countries including China.

North Korean refugees in China are officially illegal migrants. They enjoy no legal protection, and when discovered they are deported to North Korea. With the political thaw expanding throughout Northeast Asia, “hero defectors” have become “new arrivals” in search of a new life. With China, North Korea and South Korea almost equally unconcerned about them, the rights of North Korean refugees in third countries, are thoroughly trampled down.
– Original report from The Chosun Ilbo

Peasants in Yu’s village say they do not understand the concept of private ownership, let alone demand it. They are content to continue the system of collective ownership and individual farming rights. They are not closely linked with activists in other villages, let alone other provinces, and they are fiercely proud that China is hosting the Olympics.

Further, Yu’s son notes that his father is in effect illiterate.

But if Yu and his mysterious ghost writer had intended to unite peasants and make enough smoke to attract the country’s attention, then they have succeeded.

“In 10 years Yu has been our only hope,” says one village elder. “But now he’s in custody, we’re beginning to unite ourselves.”

Yu’s village is close to Fujin city, on China’s extreme north-east frontier. Russian Siberia lies just 60 kilometres away on the other side of two massive frozen rivers. Perhaps it is the cold, or the distance, but there can be few corners of the country where Beijing’s peasant-friendly rhetoric is so consistently and brazenly ignored.

Peasants have been the perennial losers in a 15-year, provincial cover-up of a project that started as a legitimate but misguided joint venture with a South Korean development entity and should have been aborted at the start – or at least when the joint venture partner walked away a decade ago.

Instead, each face-saving mistake has required an ever-more elaborate layer of tyranny to extort the money to pay back the debts of the previous mistake, and to prevent news getting out.

In 1995 Han Yin, then Fujin’s party secretary, told the then provincial governor, Tian Fengshan, that the agricultural project’s deep-seated woes had been caused by a map.

“It was an old map used before the 1980s,” said Han’s report, later obtained by affected peasants. “This caused a series of problems. The main problem is that most of the land is no longer wilderness.”

Tian, who did not act on Han’s report for two years, has since been jailed for corruption. One of his schemes was an auction of bureaucratic posts, where promotions were handed out to the highest bidder.

In 1997 the provincial government washed its hands of the project by transferring much of the appropriated land to the Fujin city government.

The Fujin officials acted like bandits when the party secretary sent his military police chief, Ma Chengxi, and his henchmen to enforce evictions and land transfers. One villager, An Fengzhen, still has an X-ray showing where a bullet lodged inside her skull.

Wang Xuejun, a villager who has since moved to Shandong, says Ma and Ge Qingxia, the city’s deputy party secretary, transferred vast tracts of farmland into their own names and started billing the peasants for rent.

“I have seen a copy of a rent receipt signed by Ge Qingxia,” says Wang. “It’s unimaginable for a government leader in China to have such a large amount of land in their own name.”

At Dongnangang, the land was carved in half and the best portion given to an unknown landlord. “They brought in peasants from Toulin town to farm the land,” says the village chief.

The land loss caused per capita incomes to drop by more than half, to about 2500 yuan.

Jon Unger, director of the Contemporary China Centre at the Australian National University, who has been studying land issues for decades, says the crudity and brazen nature of this land appropriation is extraordinary. “This is about as bad as I’ve seen.”

Through it all, Fujin officials have done everything they can to stop news getting out. One busload of villagers who tried to take their complaint to the petition office in Beijing never made it out of Fujin. They tried to explain that they were acting lawfully, but all they heard was one order: “fight”. Several were taken to hospital, most were left to tend to their own injuries in jail, says Wang Xuejun.

For the Fujin fiefdom to function requires that no information gets out, even at the cost of little coming in, and that the provincial government looks the other away. But Yu Changwu’s internet letter and some new high-level appointments might be breaking down that delicate bubble.

At the Fujin Public Security Bureau, where the Herald was being detained and interrogated, nobody was aware that reports of Yu’s letter were freely available on the internet. The Herald offered to direct officers to China’s year-old rules allowing foreign reporters to travel freely, only to be told sheepishly that there was no internet connection.

Later, the Herald was summoned to a luxury Fujin hotel room to meet a polite, stylish deputy mayor, who was part of the city’s new leadership team. “First, welcome to Fujin, the mayor hopes you enjoy your stay,” he said, over a cup of tea. “Two, next time you come to Fujin you must first report to us, so we can help you with your interviews.”

Questions about land and Yu Changwu were to go through “proper channels”. There are signs those channels may one day facilitate the flow of information, rather than only obstruct it. On Thursday the foreign affairs office in the next city, Jiamusi, said it was urgently investigating and would like to answer questions and ask some of its own.

Yu Gang, the son of Yu Changwu, is not sure how he is going to get back his land and his crazy-brave father, but he is sure it will happen. “My dream is to get my land back so I can work it, and to be reunited with my family,” he says.

Officials acting like feudal landlords in north-east China may have met their match, writes John Garnaut.

It has been 15 years since the then Heilongjiang provincial governor decreed how his most ambitious agricultural project was to be evaluated: “The Touxing Project involves the credibility of the country and the reputation of Heilongjiang. It can only succeed, it cannot fail.”

In reality the project could never succeed. It was supposed to transform 100,000 hectares of swampy “wasteland” into farmland, but local peasants had mostly done that job already. Officials get around this fundamental problem by appropriating existing village farmland and rebadging it as “reclaimed” wasteland, while sometimes acting as feudal landlords on the side.

But recently there have been signs that this stubborn and quixotic agricultural enterprise in north-east China may finally have met its match: the equally stubborn, equally quixotic, accidental peasant leader Yu Changwu.

“Yu is a man of justice,” says the chief of Dongnangang, a village of 970 people.

“He asks for no money. Even when the village offered he rejected it,” says an old peasant, sitting on the village chief’s bed. “He’s persistent and he has never stopped fighting.”

Another adds “we all admire him”, prompting a ripple of nodding heads.

But Yu Changwu’s son, an unkempt, chain-smoking and charismatic lad named Yu Gang, is loafing silently on the floor. What does he think? “My father is frank and outspoken but he’s not a leader. He’s just an ordinary village man.”

What neighbours see as selfless determination looks more like self-righteousness, or pig-headed stupidity, inside the family home. A villager quietly notes that Yu Changwu’s diabetic wife, Yu Gang’s mother, died a preventable death last year.

“Of course I’m angry,” says Yu Gang. “If he hadn’t been spending all that money on fighting the Government he could have bought medicine for my mother.”

The villagers are all dressed in unwashed shades of black, brown and navy blue, without any hint of unnecessary consumption. But then a shiny red car pulls up and the driver steps out, all dressed in red.

“This is Yu’s number two,” says the village chief, as the new arrival takes her place in the room in the opposite corner to Yu Gang, who is soon to be her stepson.

Yu Changwu was first arrested after a shocking letter was posted on the internet in June, saying that local peasants wanted human rights rather than the cherished Beijing Olympics.

He was released, rearrested and released again, only to put his name to an even more revolutionary letter posted online on December 9. It called for private property rights, on top of human rights, to protect fellow villagers from predatory officials in the city of Fujin.

It read, in part: “They have actually become the landlords, and farmers have been forced to become serfs. We decided to change this structure of land ownership, and protect the land rights of farmers through family ownership or individual ownership.”

Two days later, the Fujin city police again hauled Yu away. He has not been seen since. But he had already set in train a resistance movement that will be hard to stop.

Anxious non-government lawyers in Beijing warned that Yu had directly challenged China’s constitutional prohibition against private ownership of rural land. Excited overseas China watchers, on the other hand, thought they were witnessing early cracks in the foundations of Communist China.

“If the movement indeed takes off, it will be a true, bottom-up land revolution,” wrote Professor Fei-Ling Wang, of Georgia Institute of Technology.

The reality is more prosaic. Yu’s Jeffersonian letter was purportedly written on behalf of 40,000 peasants but it is not a faithful account of their actions or intentions. (to be cont’d…)

In two highly unusual public challenges to core tenets of Communist rule in China, an academic has announced the launch of a democratic opposition party and farmers in four provinces have claimed ownership of land seized by local authorities.

Separately, farmers in the provinces of Heilongjiang, Shaanxi, Jiangsu and the city of Tianjin have announced on the internet that they have reclaimed collective land from the government and redistributed it.

Collective land ownership is one of the foundations of the Communist state. But one of the main sources of unrest in China in recent years has been the seizure of land that is then sold to developers who often work with officials to make huge profits.

Authorities have already detained at least eight of the activists behind the internet statements, people familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

China routinely detains or jails people whom officials judge to pose a threat to Communist party rule and has dealt harshly with past attempts to set up opposition groups.

In 1998 authorities detained dozens of people involved in setting up the “China Democracy party”. Some of its main organisers were sentenced to more than 10 years in jail.

This month’s land claims break new ground by appearing to be co-ordinated across widely separated regions of the country and by being based on presumed individual property rights.

On December 16, police in the northern province of Shaanxi detained Zhang Sanmin, Cheng Sizhong and Xi Xinji on suspicion of incitement to overthrow the state. The detentions came four days after they posted an open letter on the internet claiming to have asserted rights over 10,000 hectares of land in the name of 70,000 farmers.

That action came less than a week after the detention of Yu Changwu, leader of a group in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang that claimed to represent 40,000 peasants in the reclamation of 100,000 ha of land.

In the eastern province of Jiangsu, two young couples were under effective house arrest after joining a group that asserted ownership of land confiscated by local officials to build hotels, discos and restaurants.

A fourth group in the northern port of Tianjin staked a claim on behalf of more than 8,000 people for 60 ha taken by officials for development.

The announcement of the new party and the land claims follows the release last month by a provincial government adviser, Wang Zhaojun, of a sweeping open letter indicting the nation’s entire political system.

On December 17, 2007, over 500 farmers in Changchunling Village, Fujin City, Heilongjiang Province of Northeast China gathered to reclaimed ownership of their property lost to the authorities’ illegal land seizure.

Changchunling is the second village announcing land reclamation in this area. Two weeks ago villagers of Dongnangang Village first took autonomic actions, claiming ownership of 100 acres of property.Since then, 40,000 Fujin farmers have announced their determination online to oust village officials in an effort to retrieve a total of roughly 100,000 acres of land the authorities have taken.Though Chinese authorities quickly responded with violent suppression, Changchunling farmers have proven that the autonomic land reclamation movement is spreading fast.

Fujin farmers’ fight for land started 13 years ago when the authorities expropriated ten percent of the city’s farmlands to build a farm funded by Korean investors, paying only a trivial amount of compensation to the farmers. Though the Korean farm project was later cancelled, the farmers never had their lands back.

After 13 years’ inconclusive seek for justice, the farmers decided to take active measures. The movement was kindled in June 2007 when farmer representatives approached foreign media and showed them the signatures of support they had collected, and offered the slogan, “We Want Human Rights, Not Olympic Games.”

With the growing mobilization, the Fujin municipal government increased their pressure against the farmers, resulting in the arrest of Yu Changwu, leader and key defender of Dongnangang farmers’ rights.

According to Yu’s daughter, Yu has not returned home since his arrest about a week ago. Having married into another village, she does not know more details.

The Fujin City Police Bureau and detention center were called to comment on Yu’s arrest, but no one answered the phone.

Farmers said police drove through the villages and kept a close watch on residents, attempting to threaten and bribe villagers off the land reclamation. After these tactics failed, the authorities are now trying to steal the residents’ land use certificates that determine legal ownership, said the villagers.

Villagers revealed that on December 15, Fujin City police approached the Changchunling Village clerk and ordered him to produce the land use documents on file.

The authorities’ efforts only made farmers fully realize the importance of the certificates for regaining their lands, so they refused to submit these documents that signify legal ownership of the property.

Despite the escalating persecution from authorities, Changchunling villagers began to reclaim land on December 16. On the villager meeting the next day, the village chief was persuaded to support the initiative to take back the land as a collective asset, and agreed to represent the villagers in making specific arrangements. Villagers said that the reclaimed property will be equally divided amongst the 2,200 villagers.

Though all villagers support the plan to equally divide the land, many fear the gang which the authorities have employed for over ten years to suppress villagers. Though many were too afraid to attend the meeting, over 500 villagers bravely did so and publicly demanded that the land be returned to their rightful owners.

Villagers who did not attend the assembly said that they are too scared of the authorities to say anything.

Attendants of the meeting were harassed later. In a telephone interview, Zhang, a villager who attended the meeting said that after the assembly a group of people came to his door. Among the group were policemen, local officials, and Communist Party Committee secretaries .

“They came to ask how we were dividing the land, and according to what documents,” said Zhang. “I replied that we were dividing the land according to the land certificates.”

When asked to hand the phone over to the government officials who were questioning him, Zhang said, “They asked who you were, and said this has nothing to do with you, so will not take the call.”

Changchunling Village has a vast amount of land. Over ten years ago during a joint venture, in which China was to begin an agricultural project with Korea, the land was taken through what the villagers describe as governmental deception. The project has yet to begin, but the “Fujin City Agriculture Development Company” has been occupying the land the entire time.

The company general manager and assistant general manager both own great amount of land. Fujin city council officials and city hall have also taken land from the farmers. Former Fujin city council member and assistant secretary Ge Qixia, and assistant secretary in charge of agriculture, Guo Fushan, together hold over 1600 acres of stolen land.

Mr. Cong Guoyou, in his 40’s, is a teacher at the Jiamusi City Agriculture Machine Professional School and the director of Teaching and Research Section. His wife Ms. Cui Shengyun, in her 40’s, is also a teacher at the Jiamusi City Agriculture Machine Professional School. The couple has two daughters: the eldest, Cong Xiao and the youngest Xiaobao.

(photo: The couple’s two daughters, Cong Xiao (left) and six-year-old Xiaobao (right) holding a letter asking for help to rescue their parents)

On May 17, 2007, Officers from the Jiamusi City Security Bureau in Heilongjiang Province secretly followed Ms. Cui Shengyun. On May 19, 2007 at around 9:00 a.m., they abducted Ms. Cui Shengyun and took her to the Security Bureau where she was brutally tortured.

Later when she was sent to Jiamisi City Detention Center in a coma on a stretcher, blood and urine covering her pants, she was murmuring in a weak voice, “Don’t beat me, don’t beat me.” While in the detention center, Ms. Cui was force-fed, she vomited blood and underwent emergency treatment several times.

On August 28, 2007 at around 1:30 p.m., Jiamusi city Xiangyang District Court of Heilongjiang Province took Ms. Cui from Jiamusi City Detention Center to Xiangyang District Criminal Court. The court started a trial without informing Ms. Cui’s family. The court did not assign Ms. Cui an attorney nor did they give her a chance to defend herself in court. The presiding judge was Zhao Yubin.

Ms. Cui’s husband Mr. Cong Guoyou was abducted on the same day as she was. On May 19, 2007 in the afternoon, Mr. Cong Guoyou was on his way home accompanied by his then five-year-old daughter. Abruptly, without showing any identification, officers approached and began beating him in front of his young daughter. The police ignored the child’s heart-wrenching cries. Instead, they put a black bag over Mr. Cong’s head, forced him into a car, and drove off.

The police also ransacked the couple’s home and took their valuables, including a computer.

The couple’s relatives made requests for their release many times, but the authorities at Jiamusi City Security Bureau refused without giving any explanations. Under the enormous pressure, the couple’s older daughter is about to drop out of school, and the younger daughter is in need of parental care.
Posted on November 3, 2007

Liu Jie representing petitioners was sentenced to 18 months in forced labor camp by local police in Bei’an, Heilongjiang Province. Liu, along with three appellants, published a collective letter of appeal representing 12,000 petitioners to the communist regime during the Chinese Communist Party’s 17th National Congress in October.

(photo: Liu Jie — second from left /The Epoch Times)

Liu was charged with the typical “assembling a crowd and disrupting social order.” She is now serving time in the Qiqihar Forced Labor Camp in Heilongjiang. Her family plans to apply for an administrative review.

Guilty of Publishing Open Letter

On October 8, 2007, Liu Jie, Wang Guilan, Cheng Yingcai, and Liu Xueli, representing 12,000 appellants, delivered an appeal letter to the party’s 17th National Congress and sent the letter to overseas Chinese media to be published the following day. The letter called for the protection of the freedom of speech, publication, conference, and incorporation that are granted by the constitution of China; to establish a constitutional institution, do away with labor camps and to be certain on the legality of pursuing criminals.

Not long after the letter was published, the local Bei’an police arrested Liu Jie and detained her for a month. During the detention, the police tried to prosecute Liu through the court system, but the procuratorate dismissed their case. Not to be deterred the police bypassed the court and sentenced her to 18 months in forced labor camp.

The letter of verdict from the police states, “On the 9th, Liu published a letter in The Epoch Times and Boxun News, which caused a significant disturbance at the Party’s 17th National Congress…. (Liu) frequently contacts overseas media…. attempting to agitate social disorder….”

Liu Jie’s family said, “The Bei’an police framed Liu trying to get even with her. We will look for a lawyer and request an administrative review.”

The other two charged in the matter, Cheng and Liu Xueli told The Epoch Times, “To appeal is a citizen’s constitutional right. The government shouldn’t say one thing and do something else. We demand the government obey the law and we call on the authorities to release Liu immediately.”

Why Liu Walks on the Journey of Appeal

Ten years ago at the Xinnong Farm in Heilongjiang, Liu invested millions of yuan to start a family business raising dairy cows and cattle. The business went great. However, the Farming Reclamation Bureau breached a contract and twice mobilized government agencies to wreck the farm and confiscated all of Liu’s property.

Liu took legal action, but she was beaten by receptionists at the Procuratorate’s office leaving her blind in her left eye and with severely impaired vision in her right eye. During her journey of appealing to different levels of the government, she has been illegally detained many times. Since then, Liu started to study Chinese law intent on protecting herself.

An insider disclosed that Yang Chun-Lin (the representative for the lost-land farmers in Fujin City) has been tortured in prison. His lawyer, barred from meeting him so far, will again raise his request to meet Yang. The State Security claimed that lately, the case, classified as ‘subversion of state power’, has been transferred to the Procuratorate.

In the morning of 8th October, a family member of Yang Chun-Lin demanded a reply from the head of the interrogation team as to why they inflicted torture on Yang Chun-Lin. The head named Xu had nothing to say in response. The sister of Yang Chun-Lin went to visit him in jail but was denied a chance to see Yang Chun-Lin by the jail authorities who even refused the clothes his family brought to him.

“Recently, it’s been raining and snowing there. I was told that the jail is very cold even in the summer time, not to mention it’s coming close to winter. My brother Chun-Lin uses his clothes to wrap around his feet. We sent him some clothes, and socks but jail officers refused to accept them. They asked us to save money to buy our way inside the jail. I told them that we haven’t got any money.”

An inmate who shared the cell with Yang Chun-Lin and was recently released told Yang’s family that Yang Chun-Lin was badly tortured in jail. The jail authorities used the torture, commonly known as the “Iron Cage”, to torture him. The insider disclosed that the“Iron Cage” is a punishment that confines a person in an iron cage where four limbs are completely strained open, each fastened to a fixture at four corners of an
iron bed. During the punishment, one remains completely still and will not be released even at times of eating, drinking and convenience. Because Yang advocated the concept of democracy and human rights to the inmates, the jail authorities resorted to inflicting torture on him.

The State Security claimed that they would transfer Yang Chun-Lin’s case to the Procuratorate as a suspect of ‘subverting state power’. Li Fang-Ping, the defending lawyer hired for Yang has been barred from seeing Yang Chun-Lin, but he is attempting a second time to meet Yang. The lawyer Li Fang-Ping believed that Yang Chun-Lin’s collecting of signatures on the petition, “Human Rights come before the Olympics”, and his demanding of the thorough investigation on corrupted officials who confiscated farmers’ lands, are within the scope of freedom of expression as a citizen.

[Recording]
“We had gone through the legal procedures, but so far they have not replied to us. We wonder if this is caused by incomplete procedures somewhere or is a message saying that our meeting with him is denied. We attempted twice to meet him and waited there for one week. If they really found flaws in our filled out form, then, we could withdraw it and redo another one. But they will not agree to withdraw the form.”

Since Yang Chun-Lin was arrested on 6th July by the special interrogation team set up by the Heilongjiang Provincial State Security office and Jia-Mu-Si City Branch, they have been applying all kinds of means to make Yang renounce and repent, but all their efforts have ended in vain.

Because Yang Chun-Lin actively supported and participated in a relayed hunger-strike ignited by Beijing renowned human rights lawyer Gao Zhi-Sheng, the local police bureau and the State Security followed him, and spied on him. He was summoned for interrogations four times by the State Security officers. To help folks in the northeastern region defend their basic rights against autocracy, he stepped into the lost-land farmers case of Fujin City in 2007, raising the slogan “Human Rights come before the Olympics”.

Yang Chun-Lin spent over half a year under arduous conditions on the outskirts of Heilongjiang, (Fujin region) and had collected over seven thousand real names of lost-land farmers to support the boycott of the Olympics. Due to poverty, he ate and stayed in the open air (regardless of the weather) walking hundreds of miles under heavy snow of 30 degrees below zero, to and fro between Jia-Mu-Si and Fujin. His feet bled with blisters and both feet were swollen and purple due to injuries. He visited one village after another, household after household, patiently explaining to the lost-land farmers who have been under the thumbnail of the Communist Party for over ten years, helping them seek a way out of misery, and to end their sufferings by effectively defending their human rights.

The seven thousand names he gathered on the petition of “Human Rights Come before the Olympics” (with the letter of the appeal) have been submitted to the International Olympic Committee and UN Human Rights Organization via Pan Qing, the liaison for the Alliance of Global Anti-Terrorism and Human Rights Defense.

By Gao Zhisheng (Chinese lawyer), Special to The Epoch Times, September 5, 2007, published on Sep 17-

I have received a massive amount of materials and documents exposing the bloody crimes of the CCP’s tyranny. It is because of the wisdom, courage, and unique insistence of those who have been falsely charged and wrongfully treated throughout China that these materials have made their way to me. Facing such tragic atrocities, we can no longer continue to be silent. Facing such horrendous acts of cruelty, our silence, and those who keep us silent, cause us to abandon our feelings and consciences as human beings.

I have seen a lot of things in my life. However, seeing the photograph of 30-year-old Ma Zhixin’s corpse made my blood boil, and I couldn’t sleep at all that night. On the back of the photo, was written, “Ma Zhixin, a communist soldier transferred to civilian work, beaten to death by the police in the prison of the Public Security of Yabuli Forestry Bureau in Heilongjiang Province, had 11 broken ribs, a broken spine, and a body covered in wounds.” Is there no security for the soldiers that are transferred to civilian work? There is no protection for common people.

Over the past several years, the Public Security of Yabuli Forestry Bureau in Heilongjiang Province has shown that they are nothing more than a gang of insurgents and bandits:

– They stoned petitioner Song Baozhu’s house, broke the windows, and threw petrol bombs that set the house afire.

– Lu Guiju, a petitioner, was also beaten to death. His family received only 150,000 YMB (approximately US$19,736) in remuneration for their loss.

Being a demobilized soldier myself, I feel extraordinary grief over Ma Zhixin’s death. It is tough for soldiers to transfer to civilian work. Leaving military service means that they have to compete with younger men to forge a career. However tough it is for them, they strive for survival in a peaceful way. How can trying to transition to civilian life cause such hatred from the police?

The horrifying image of Ma Zhixin’s corpse is tragic, shocking, and startling. It reveals the terrifying hatred of the “people’s police” towards soldiers transferred to civilian work— the same soldiers who defended the rights of those policemen. We cannot imagine the despair and suffering Ma Zhixin experienced just before his cruel death. His photo torments us. I request, as an individual human being, for the authorities to punish the killers, adequately compensate his family, and apologize to the public, and thereby demonstrate some humanity.

The deceased is long gone, but what’s left for those of us who remain? His photo is a warning to all of us: “Beware of the existing communist dictatorship and its brutal nature.” With that, we share the pain and burden of Ma Zhixin’s family.

However, in order to stop this terrible evil, Ma’s spirit and his family need to report the violence to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, to Mr. Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, and to the parliament of every country.

Enlarge Ma’s photo, and imprint it onto the minds and hearts of every soldier— any soldier— who might be transferred to civilian work. Imprint it onto the heart of every Chinese citizen. The picture is more powerful than any words.

May your soul rest in peace, Ma Zhixin.

The slaughtering of innocent people might create a temporary roadblock, but the journey to Chinese human rights will continue from where Ma Zhixin fell.

Midnight, September 5, 2007 in Beijing.

Gao Zhisheng

[Editors Note: According to mainland news reports in 2006, this tragedy started on May 17, 2006, when Ma Zhixin slapped the face of the deputy director at Lianghe Management during an argument. Later, the deputy director accepted Ma Zhixin’s apology and 400 yuan (approximately US$53) in compensation. Ma Zhixin thought his conflict with the deputy director was over. Unfortunately, on June 22, 2006, the Public Security of Yabuli Forestry Bureau arrested Ma and charged him with fraud. On day 39 in the detention center, Ma Zhixin was beaten to death. ]

On September 1, the website of Procuratorial Daily (检察日报) published a short list of officials at the provincial level who have been found to be corrupt since the 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held in 2002. [1]

1. Liu Fangren, former Secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee, former Chair of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou People’s Congress,

Alleged Crimes: economic crime
Sentence or Decision: Expelled from the CCP and official duties

3. Wang Huaizhong, former Vice Governor of Anhui Province

Alleged Crimes: Accepting a bribe of 5,170,000 Yuan; no legitimate sources for personal assets of 4,800,000 Yuan
Sentence or Decision: Death penalty with deprivation of political rights for life and confiscation of all personal property

4. Han Guizhi, former Chair of the Political Consultative Conference of Heilongjiang Province

Alleged Crimes: Accepting 7,020,000 Yuan in illegal money Sentence or Decision: Death penalty with a two-year reprieve, deprivation of political rights for life and confiscation of all personal property

5. Wang Zhaoyao, former Chair of the Political Consultative Conference of Anhui Province

Alleged Crimes: Accepting illegal money and items with a total value of 7,040,000 Yuan; no legitimate sources for personal assets of 6,500,000 Yuan
Sentence or Decision: Death penalty with a two-year reprieve, deprivation of political rights for life and confiscation of all personal property

6. Wang Youjie, former Vice Chair of Political Consultative Conference of Henan Province

Alleged Crimes: Accepting illegal money and items with a total value of 6,340,000 Yuan; no legitimate sources for personal assets of 8,900,000 Yuan
Sentence or Decision: Death penalty with a two-year reprieve, deprivation of political rights for life and confiscation of all personal property

7. Jing Fusheng, former member of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee, former Director of the Provincial Propaganda Department

Alleged Crimes: Accepting multi-millions of Yuan in illegal money; a corrupt life style
Sentence or Decision: Expelled from the CCP and official duties, transferred to the judicial authority for investigation into the alleged crimes

8. Du Shicheng, former Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee, former Secretary of the Qingdao Municipal Party Committee

Alleged Crimes: Individually or collectively, along with his mistress, accepting illegal money and items with a value of 1,000,000 Yuan; a corrupt life style
Sentence or Decision: Expelled from the CCP and official duties, transferred to the judicial authority for investigation to the alleged crimes

9. Liu Zhihua, former Vice Mayor of Beijing

Alleged Crimes: Accepting multi-millions of Yuan in bribes; having a mistress and using his power to contract construction projects for his mistress as a way to reap huge illegal profits
Sentence or Decision: Expelled from the CCP and official duties, transferred to the judicial authority for investigation into the alleged crimes

10. Qiu Xiaohua, former Director of the National Bureau of Statistics

Alleged Crimes: Accepting cash gifts from illegal business owners, a corrupt life style, and bigamy
Sentence or Decision: Expelled from the CCP and official duties, transferred to the judicial authority for investigation to the alleged crimes

11. Zheng Xiaoyu, former Director of the State Food and Drug Administration

Alleged Crimes: Accepting illegal money and items with a total value of 6,490,000 Yuan; negligence at work
Sentence or Decision: Death penalty with deprivation of political rights for life and confiscation of all personal property

On August 23, the family of Yang Chunlin, a human rights advocate for landless farmers in Fujin, Heilongjiang Province, was informed by police that Yang was formally arrested by the Jiamusi Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Heilongjiang on August 13.

Yang was charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” The Jiamusi PSB said Yang’s case was arraigned in the Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Department and reported to the Ministry of Public Security.

Panic in Beijing

According to an insider from the Jiamusi PSB, Yang, represented 40,000 landless peasants in asking for the return of their lands, and advocated “No Olympics, but Human Rights.” The advocacy made the high level officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) panic. The insider said the impact was huge. So an order to arrest Yang was issued by the Ministry of Public Security, directed by the Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Department, and the Jiamusi and Fujin PSBs arrested him.

Police Fail to Follow Law

Yang’s family said that according to the regime’s Criminal Law, after people are detained for 36 days, the PSB should have issued an official written arrest warrant. On day 37 of Yang’s detention, August 13, his family requested a warrant from the Jiamusi PSB several times, but they did not receive a formal reply. Finally on August 23, when his family requested again, only then did the public security office give them an arrest warrant.

Yang’s family told the reporter that the authorities did not give them an official arrest warrant according to legal procedures, nor did they reveal Yang’s situation because they were afraid it would be exposed.

On August 23, Yang’s sister went to the PSB again and requested, “When you detained Yang, you didn’t give us a permit of arrest. When you formally arrested him, you didn’t notify his family. Why? If you think he committed a crime, you should use the normal legal procedure. The way you processed him shows he did not commit a crime. Otherwise, why should you do it covertly?”

Police Admit Reason for Stalling

The public security told Yang’s family that his case has been transferred to the procuratorate. They blamed Yang’s family, because whatever they said to them, would be known to the world the next day (reported by the Epoch Times).

The Epoch Times reporter called the Jiamusi PSB. After the public security officer asked the reporter’s name, he said, “Why don’t you investigate in China. Are you controlled remotely from overseas? Who knows what organization you are in and who funds you. Does the U.S. government give you money and you work for it?” Then the official hung up the phone. No one answered the phone when the reporter called again.